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McDonald's Halts McNugget Sales in Japan

Updated April 3, 2002 12:30 a.m. ET

McDonald's has suspended sales of its popular Chicken McNuggets at nearly all outlets in Japan following the outbreak of a fowl epidemic in some parts of the U.S., the company said Wednesday. McDonald's Co. (Japan) Ltd. spokesman Kenji Kaniya said the measure was a precautionary step taken largely because the chain ran out of chicken stock. McDonald's Japan will resume sales once an alternate supply is found, possibly as early as later this month. The bird illness normally poses no threat to humans. But a similar chicken virus crossed over to humans in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people and sickening dozens. That...